BT  738  . R624  1918 
Robinson,  Frank  A. 

Religious  revival  and  social 
betterment 


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Religious  Revival  and 
Social  Betterment  /$ 


BY 


F.  A.  Robinson,  M.  A. 

Author  of  “  Trail  Tales  of  Western  Canada ” 


L I  'lor-.  O'  HS-  .  1  U<*nT . 


BOSTON 

THE  GORHAM  PRESS 

MCMXVIII 


^  OF  FRitfc 


to 


UN  17  1918 


ilpsic u 


Copyright  1918,  by  F.  A.  Robinson 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Poston,  U.  S.  A. 


To 

Rev.  J.  G.  Shearer,  D.  D., 

SUPERINTENDENT  OF 
SOCIAL  SERVICE  AND  EVANGELISM, 

THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  CANADA, 
FROM  WHOSE  LIFE  AND  LIPS  THE  WRITER  HAS 
GRATEFULLY  LEARNED  MANY  THINGS. 


CONTENTS 

Page 

Christ’s  Test  of  Discipleship .  9 

Christ’s  Example .  10 

Examples  from  History .  11 

Our  Duty .  12 

Who  is  My  Neighbor? .  *5 

A  Practical  Gospel . 17 

Providing  New  Interests  in  Life .  19 

The  Question  of  Environment .  23 

Adequate  Remuneration .  26 

Financial  Investment .  29 

The  Claims  of  the  Rich .  3 2 

Personal  Conversion . 33 

Personal  Conversion  is  for  Service .  35 

Social  Service  Leagues .  43 

The  Care  of  the  Body .  47 

Care  of  the  Child  . . . .  51 

Ministering  to  the|Whole  of  Life .  53 


5 


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RELIGIOUS  REVIVAL  AND  SOCIAL 
BETTERMENT 


I 


Religious  Revival  and  Social 
Betterment 


Christ's  Test  of  Disciple  ship 

More  knowledge  of,  and  love  for  Christ  means 
concern  for  those  whom  He  so  loved.  That  is 
involved  in  being  a  Christ  one.  “The  Son  of 
Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to 
minister. ”  He  looked  out  on  the  multitude  and 
was  moved  with  compassion,  and  that  com¬ 
passion  expressed  itself  in  service.  The  weary 
He  made  comfortable;  the  hungry  He  fed;  the 
sick  He  healed;  to  the  troubled  and  anxious  ones 
He  brought  peace;  to  the  sorely  tempted  He 
imparted  strength.  To  those  who  would  follow 
Him,  He  says, — “By  this  shall  all  men  know 
that’ye  are  My  Disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one  to 
another.”  If  we  are  good,  we  must  be  good  for 
something,  and  good  to  somebody.  Christ  s 
test  of  discipleship  forbids  the  strong  to  prey  on 
the  weak,  the  few  to  plunder  the  many,  or  the 
many  the  few;  it  means  that  justice  and  mercy 
must  be  loved  and  practised,  and  that  men  must 
not  live  heedless  of  their  fellowmen. 

9 


io  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


Christ's  Example 

In  studying  the  records  of  our  Master’s  life 
we  at  once  see  how  intensely  concerned  He  was 
about  the  whole  life  of  the  people  with  whom  He 
had  to  deal.  He  spent  a  great  deal  of  His  valuable 
time  and  strength  in  concern  for  the  bodily  ills 
of  men.  True,  He  stands  out  as  the  great  spirit¬ 
ual  deliverer  of  all  generations,  but  He  also  came 
to  His  own  time  as  a  great  physician  and  as  a 
social  reformer.  He  had  an  ear  open  for  every 
wail  of  sorrow,  a  heart  ready  to  respond  to  every 
species  of  need.  Although  we  rightfully  regard 
Him  as  especially  the  Redeemer  of  the  soul,  yet 
no  one  can  read  the  story  of  His  life  without 
feeling  that  He  was  as  emphatically  the  Saviour 
of  the  body.  He  taught  the  people;  but  while 
teaching  He  did  not  neglect  to  multiply  the  loaves 
and  fishes  in  order  to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the 
crowd.  So  it  was  all  through  His  ministry. 
The  peculiar  need  of  the  shrinking  woman  with 
the  shame-faced  disease,  the  father’s  cry  of  an¬ 
guish  for  his  little  daughter,  the  appeal  of  the 
oppressed,  the  cry  of  a  poor  blind  beggar,  the 
shriek  of  pain,  the  mad  cry  of  the  demon-pos¬ 
sessed;  all  these  were  heard  by  Him  and  none 
were  heard  in  vain. 

What  relief  and  reconstruction  He  sought  to 
bring  to  the  cities  He  yearned  to  save!  And  He 
wept  over  them — wept,  because  He  so  intensely 
cared.  Stelzle  says  of  some  of  New  York’s 
poor,  “They  have  forgotten  how  to  smile.” 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


1 1 


Perhaps  some  of  us  have  forgotten  how  to  weep. 
Have  we  ever  felt  the  misery  and  unrest  of  sin  as 
a  part  of  our  burden,  or  do  we  sit  at  ease  in  our 
careless  comfort?  Are  we  indifferent  to  the  great 
loss  that  sin  entails  upon  our  country,  and  the 
great  loss  to  Him  whose  we  are?  Has  the  sob 
ever  choked  our  utterance  as  it  did  the  utterance 
of  a  great  patriot  as  he  cried  out  in  behalf  of  his 
people,  “If  Thou  wilt,  forgive  their  sin;  but  if 
not — blot  me  out  of  the  book  which  Thou  hast 
written.  ” 

Examples  from  History 

Wonderful  indeed,  has  been  the  influence  of  the 
religion  of  Jesus  Christ  on  men  and  nations. 
Every  intelligent  reader  or  student  of  history 
knows  that  nations  and  empires  do  not  rise  to 
positions  of  great  power  and  dominion  except  by 
the  aid  of  religion.  The  oft-quoted  greatness  of 
the  Roman  Empire  must  be  investigated  in  the 
light  of  the  fact  that  in  its  earlier  stages  that 
Empire  was  not  less  religious  than  was  Israel. 
Looking  at  the  same  Empire  later  on,  none  can 
deny  how  the  early  followers  of  Jesus  influenced 
and  leavened  its  life.  Race  barriers  were  broken 
down,  the  condition  of  the  poor  was  bettered, 
the  slave  was  honored,  and  the  wonderful  love  of 
these  Christians  for  each  other  deeply  impressed 
all  observers.  And  what  these  Christians  stood 
for  has  been  the  most  powerful  moral  lever  that 
ever  has  been  applied  to  the  affairs  of  men. 


12  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


All  competent  historians  pay  their  tribute  to 
the  eighteenth  century  evangelical  revival,  and 
more  than  one  has  said  that  it  did  more  to  make 
modern  England  than  all  the  statescraft  of  Pitt 
and  all  the  victories  of  Wellington.  The  history 
of  the  church  in  Scotland — the  land  of  revivals— 
with  its  “martyrs  of  the  Covenant,”  furnishes 
much  information  and  inspiration  on  the  subject. 
The  name  of  Chalmers  stands  in  the  forefront 
of  those  who  led  the  revived  Church  into  practical 
and  effective  work  for  social  betterment. 

While  social  betterment  is  taking  on  an  en¬ 
larged  meaning  at  the  present  time,  yet  there  are 
other  names  like  Luther,  Knox,  Wesley,  and 
Whitefield,  that  are  inseparably  associated  with 
it;  and  they  are  so  associated  with  it  because  of 
the  clearer  \ision  they  received  of  God — with 
such  a  vision  a  man  is  bound  to  be  a  social  re¬ 
former,  no  matter  how  men  may  classify  him. 
The  cry  of  a  needy  world  reaches  his  heart  and 
he  responds,  “Here  am  I,  send  me.” 

Our  Duty 

In  this  period  of  nation-making  and  city¬ 
making  on  the  North  American  continent,  we 
need  to  watch  and  work  and  pray  to  prevent  the 
insidious  growth  of  those  evils  that  constitute 
almost  paralyzing  problems  in  some  other  lands 
and  cities  to-day.  These  problems  may  never 
be  solved,  but  they  will  become  lesser  problems 
as  the  young  American  realizes  that  his  responsi- 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  13 


bility  only  ends  with  his  possibility  and  that 
great  possibilities  lie  before  him. 

I^There  is  a  famous  hall  in  the  old  world  made 
memorable  by  countless  great  utterances,  but 
perhaps  no  words  are  cherished  more  than  those 
of  the  much-loved  Lord  Shaftesbury.  It  was  his 
last  speech  in  the  House  of  Lords.  Said  the 
great  man,  “I  feel  old  age  creeping  upon  me  and 
I  am  deeply  grieved,  for  I  cannot  bear  to  go 
away  and  leave  the  world  with  so  much  misery 
in  it.”  When  Shaftesbury  finished  life’s  little 
day,  multitudes  of  the  heavy-laden  suffered  the 
loss  of  a  friend,  and  the  ragged,  poverty-stricken 
little  street  arab  who  said  at  the  funeral,  “’E  was 
our  Earl,”  spoke  for  thousands  who  felt  their 
champion  was  gone. 

“I  am  debtor,”  says  the  writer  to  the  Romans, 
“both  to  the  Greeks  and  to  the  barbarians.” 
In  the  light  of  the  social  conditions  of  his  time, 
that  is  a  great,  a  very  great  utterance.  And 
again  in  Ephesians,  “We  are  members  one  of 
another.”  We  are  bound  to  the  rest  of  the 
human  race  in  the  compact  bundle  of  life,  and  the 
final  demonstration  of  the  quality  of  our  religious 
life  must  be  in  our  relations  to  our  fellow-men, 
of  whatever  type  they  may  be. 

In  one  of  our  settlement  houses  where  large- 
hearted  men  and  women  are  toiling  among  the 
poyerty  stricken  and  sin-handicapped  of  the 
city’s  centre,  a  street  waif  expressed  his  apprecia¬ 
tion  of  the  help  being  given.  “Say  teacher,” 
said  the  little  chap  whose  life  had  been  one  of  ill- 


14  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


treatment,  “a  feller  gits  a  chance  here  don’t  he? 
In  the  house  it’s  ‘git  out,’  on  the  street  the  big 
feller  gits  everything,  but  here  everybody  gits 
a  chance.”  In  those  words  the  little  chap  has 
put  the  whole  case  for  social  effort.  That  is  the 
foundation  principle — to  give  every  individual 
his  or  her  God-intended  chance.  So  long  as  its 
ideals  are  such  as  that,  Christianity  never  can 
become  obsolete.  If  Christianity  were  merely 
concerned  with  the  temporary  adjustment  of 
certain  local  wrongs,  it  would  become  the  religion 
of  a  decade  or  a  century.  It  is  unchanging  in 
that  it  commits  itself  to  eternal  principles  which 
are  applicable  to  all  ages.  The  realization  of  that 
will  save  us  from  any  narrow  view  of  our  work. 
The  church  cannot  side  either  with  the  employer 
or  the  employee.  That  is,  she  cannot  be  ex¬ 
clusively  or  permanently  the  champion  of  either 
side  if  she  is  true  to  her  Lord.  Jesus  was  never 
the  champion  of  a  class.  He  was  the  champion 
of  humanity.  We  must  emphasize  the  fact  that 
men  of  all  ranks  should  exercise  forbearance  and 
sympathy  and  generosity  one  toward  the  other. 

Social  betterment  is  to  be  brought  about  by  a 
creed  that  says, — “mine  is  thine.”  The  healing 
word  and  deed  for  the  social  woes  of  men  is, — 

what  I  have,  give  I  thee.”  That  means 
sacrifice.  Christ’s  power  over  the  world  is  not 
that  He  preached  at  it,  but  that  He  died  for  it. 

One  has  said  of  our  own  day,  “No  age  has  so 
honestly  begun  to  discern  that  it  is  love  alone 
which  can  speak  the  last,  and  perhaps  the  first 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  15 


word  in  the  struggle  between  poverty  and  wealth, 
class  and  class,  nation  and  nation.” 

Do  we  think  social  service  is  exclusively 
associated  with  great  building  schemes,  with 
settlement  houses,  with  clubs,  with  guilds  and 
such  like?  If  we  think  thus,  we  unnecessarily 
deplete  the  ranks  of  social  workers.  Every 
individual  who  considers  the  effect  of  what  he  is 
doing  or  leaving  undone  on  the  general  welfare, 
and  sacrifices  if  need  be  his  private  interests, 
brings  himself  into  the  ranks  of  the  nation’s 
social  workers.  We  need  what  one  has  termed, 
“public  souls.”  Men  and  women  who  will  get 
out  of  the  narrowed  boundaries  of  their  own 
little  world  of  preferences  and  dislikes  into  the 
boundless  world  that  God  loves. 

Who  is  My  Neighbour  ? 

Christ  would  not  allow  men  to  circumscribe 
limits  to  their  helpfulness.  “Who  is  my  neigh¬ 
bour?”  was  a  question  He  repudiated,  because 
it  suggested  that  some  were  not  the  questioner’s 
neighbours.  When  the  parable  was  ended  Christ 
changed  the  form  of  the  question  and  asked, 
“Which — was  neighbour  unto  him  that  fell 
among  the  thieves?”  The  opportunity,  not  the 
locality,  constitutes  the  obligation  of  service. 
The  Fatherhood  of  God  is  often  more  readily 
acknowledged  than  the  consequent  brotherhood 
of  man:  but  in  all  our  strivings  for  social  better¬ 
ment  the  latter  is  an  essential  principle — God 


1 6  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


has  made  us  neighbours  to  hundreds  and  thou¬ 
sands  in  this  land,  some  are  poor,  some  are  rich; 
some  are  degraded,  some  are  cultured;  some  are 
repulsive,  some  are  attractive;  but  to  all  “I  am 
debtor.”  Yet  how  little  it  troubles  us  to  pass 
by  on  the  other  side.  Perhaps  as  in  the  parable, 
misery  remains  unrelieved  because  it  is  not 
clamorous  enough.  The  poor  unfortunate  man 
lay  half-dead  and  so  the  priest  had  not  to  listen  to 
earnest  appeals  to  which  it  might  have  been 
difficult  to  give  a  positive  refusal.  Yet  those 
wounds,  that  helplessness,  were  appeal  enough  to 
a  heart  of  Christlike  love. 

The  Church  is  not  in  the  world  to  save  itself — 
peacefully  and  selfishly  to  supply  its  own  need, — • 
but  to  extend  its  work  until  all  men  shall  know 
its  Lord.  The  pastor  and  officers  may  have 
duties  that  centre  around  and  within  a  particular 
organization,  but  their  duties  are  far  wider  than 
the  church  in  which  they  are  called  to  serve. 
“Into  all  the  world  to  every  creature,”  lifts  a 
man  beyond  and  above  all  local  limitations. 
It  makes  his  field  broader  than  any  walls  can 
bound  or  any  streets  mark  off.  Never  was  it 
intended  that  the  Church  should  be  separate 
from  the  world  in  any  sense  that  removes  its  help 
and  sympathy  from  it.  The  very  function  of 
the  church  is  found  in  her  organic  relation  to  the 
community  and  her  mission  must  be  all-inclusive. 
The  rich  and  the  poor,  the  learned  and  the  un¬ 
learned,  the  employer  and  the  employee,  alike 
claim  her  sen  ices. 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  17 


The  following  incident  is  narrated  because 
social  betterment  is  often  taken  to  mean  as  al¬ 
ready  stated,  some  great  organized  movement  in 
which  only  certain  ones  find  it  possible  to  engage. 
A  young  member  of  a  Christian  Endeavor  Society  in 
a  midland  city  is  receiving  a  small  salary  and  out 
of  it  partially  maintains  an  invalid  parent.  The 
summer’s  vacation  was  planned  and  several 
months’  scanty  savings  were  put  away  for  the 
much  needed  holiday.  Two  weeks  before  holiday 
time  a  poverty-stricken  and  sickly  mother  in 
another  part  of  the  city  lay  untended,  except  for 
such  help  as  the  wearied  husband  could  give 
before  and  after  the  day’s  toil.  Knowing  the  cir¬ 
cumstances,  the  girl  who  belonged  to  the  Christian 
Endeavor  Society, wrote  to  her  holiday  companion, 
“I  simply  cannot  go.  ”  A  quiet  time  was  spent  at 
home  instead  of  at  the  distant  lakeside.  But 
through  that  sacrifice  an  overworked  mother  is 
slowly  and  thankfully  recovering  because  a  nurse 
has  tenderly  cared  for  her  during  the  struggle 
with  a  serious  ailment.  To  one  has  come  the 
wonderful  joy  of  service,  and  to  the  home  of  sick¬ 
ness  has  come  the  thrill  of  knowledge  that  some¬ 
body  cares.  A  life  fragrant  with  such  deeds  is 
worth  a  thousand  arguments  in  behalf  of  Chris¬ 
tianity. 

A  Practical  Gospel 

On  the  part  of  some  good  people  there  is  what 
Hugh  Price  Hughes  called  an  “irritating  ten- 


1 8  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


dency”  to  talk  about  giving  “the  Gospel”  to  the 
oppressed,  starving,  suffering,  destitute  people; 
and  yet  no  real  concern  is  felt  about  their  eco¬ 
nomic  and  social  condition.  It  is  easy  for  the 
well-fed,  well-clothed,  home-secure  individual  to 
“  talk ”  Gospel,  but  “  if  a  brother  or  sister  be  naked 
and  destitute  of  daily  food,”  then  is  the  time  for 
more  than  mere  words.  There  must  be  deeds  of 
heroic  service  that  will  bring  relief  and  liberation. 

A  good  illustration  of  this  non-practical  sort  of 
sympathy  was  given  in  the  British  House  of 
Commons  some  time  ago  by  Mr.  Will  Crooks  who 
is  known  to  many  in  the  class  called  “The  Sub¬ 
merged  Tenth,”  as  “Daddy.”  He  is  the  father 
to  whom  many  of  these  people  go  with  their 
troubles.  During  the  Dock  Strike  his  speeches 
were  most  impressive,  but  he  never  carried  his 
audience  with  him  so  much  as  when  he  spoke 
in  the  House  on  his  motion  regarding  the  estab¬ 
lishment  of  a  general  minimum  wage  of  thirty 
shillings  a  week  for  each  adult  worker.  “All  I 
ask,”  he  said  dramatically,  “is  that  the  working 
man  shall  be  treated  as  a  human  being  and  not  as 
a  machine.  ‘Rats  on  economic  conditions’  cries 
the  hungry  man.  ‘I  want  to  get  food  for  myself 
and  for  my  family’,”  and  then  Mr.  Crooks  told 
the  pathetic  story  of  a  little  girl,  who  going  along 
the  road  crying  with  hunger  was  met  by  a  well- 
fed  person.  “What  is  the  matter,  my  lictle  dear,  ” 
the  latter  asked.  The  child  said  she  was  hungry. 
“Never  mind,  God  sends  bread  to  fill  hungry 
mouths.”  “Yes,”  replied  the  little  girl,  “but 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  19 


He  sends  the  bread  to  your  house  and  the  mouths 
to  ours.  ” 

Pious  sentences  do  not  satisfy  hungry  mouths. 
The  Bible  gives  the  greatest  possible  prominence 
to  the  physical  and  social  needs  of  men  and  to 
what  should  be  the  Christian’s  attitude  to  these. 

Yet  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  much  help  that 
is  called  charity  is  little  better  than  wasted.  Our 
aim  in  such  relief  must  be  not  merely  to  bring 
comfort,  but  to  produce  character.  By  keeping 
that  thought  in  view,  we  shall  be  discriminative 
in  our  charity. 

Dr.  Russell  H.  Conwell  in  his  famous  lecture 
“ Acres  of  Diamonds,”  tells  of  being  warned  not 
to  give  anything  spendable  to  a  man  who  used  to 
frequent  mission  halls  and  smaller  places  seeking 
assistance.  One  day  he  succumbed  to  a  pa¬ 
thetic  story  told  him  and  twelve  hours  later  was 
taken  to  task  by  a  judge  for  having  furnished  the 
man  mentioned  with  the  means  for  getting  drunk. 
Valuable  property  was  destroyed  by  a  fire  started 
through  the  drunkenness  of  which  Dr.  Conwell 
had  unwittingly  been  the  cause.  No  matter  how 
kindly  the  motive,  indiscriminate  charity  often 
leads  to  very  much  greater  evils  than  those  it 
seeks  to  alleviate. 

Providing  New  Interests  in  Life 

Then  there  are  the  many  who,  through  their 
own  or  others’  faults,  have  no  inner  resources, 
and  who  need  guidance  in  profitably  occupying 


20 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


their  leisure  hours.  Absence  of  helpful,  stimu¬ 
lating  interests  and  friendships  have  caused  much 
of  the  gambling  and  drunkenness  and  vice  which 
we  mourn.  Not  very  many  suffer  for  want  of 
food  in  this  land  of  ours;  but  even  if  all  have 
sufficient  bread,  man  cannot  live  by  bread  alone. 
He  wants  interests  in  life.  By  encouraging 
word,  kindly  direction  and  gracious  ministry, 
many  may  be  heartened  in  the  fight.  It  is 
wonderful  how  the  eye  kindles  with  a  new  light, 
and  how  the  step  takes  on  a  new  sprightliness 
when  a  friendless  man  finds  a  friend. 

James  Whitcomb  Riley  has  put  into  quaint 
and  homely  verse  a  great  truth  along  these  lines: — * 

When  a  man  hasn’t  a  cent  and  is 
feeling  kind  of  blue, 

And  the  clouds  hang  dark  and  heavy 
and  won’t  let  the  sunshine  through, 

It’s  a  great  thing  boys,  for  a  neigh¬ 
bour  just  to  lay 

His  hand  upon  your  shoulder  in  a 
friendly  sort  of  way. 

It  makes  a  man  feel  curious,  it  makes 
the  tear-drops  start, 

And  you  feel  a  kind  of  fluttering  in 
the  region  of  the  heart: 

You  can’t  look  up  and  meet  his  eyes, 
you  don’t  know  what  to  say 
When  his  hand  is  on  your  shoulder 
in  a  friendly  sort  of  way. 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  21 


This  world’s  a  curious  compound 
with  its  honey  and  its  gall, 

Its  care  and  bitter  crosses,  but  a 
good  world  after  all, 

And  a  good  God  must  have  made  it, 
leastways  that  is  what  I  say, 

When  a  hand  is  on  my  shoulder  in  a 
friendly  sort  of  way. 

A  man  who  is  now  the  leader  in  the  work  of  a 
certain  church,  was  saved  from  hopeless  despair 
because  a  hand  was  placed  on  his  shoulder  and 
he  was  assured  that  one  believed  in  him  and 
would  stand  by  him;  for  months  the  one  lived  for 
the  other.  It  was  an  individual  effort  for  an 
individual,  but  the  redeemed  man  is  now  a  force 
in  the  social  betterment  of  a  needy  community. 
So  what  appears  to  be  an  individual  effort,  is 
often  a  ministry  to  the  multitude. 

The  same  thing  applies  to  many  of  the  lads  of 
our  great  cides.  They  have  no  healthy,  helpful 
interests  in  life.  Left  to  themselves,  they 
drifted  into  bad  gangs  that  are  often  a  menace 
to  the  community.  Even  the  formation  of 
“gangs”  shows  that  these  boys  are  naturally 
fond  of  organization  and  discipline,  and  such 
organization  would  save  many  a  lad  from  adult 
criminality.  One  writes:  “Effective  treatment 
of  the  juvenile  delinquent  would  eliminate  per¬ 
haps  fifty  percent  of  our  adult  crime.  William 
Healey,  in  his  Individual  Delinquent ,  makes  the 
assertion  that  the  principal  age  for  recruiting  into 


22  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


the  ranks  of  criminal  life  is  between  fifteen  and 
twenty.  ‘In  connection  with  the  early  impetus 
given  to  the  Reformatory  movement  in  England 
during  the  conferences  of  1851,  1853,  and  1861, 
a  number  of  direct  observations  were  reported. 
Clay,  in  a  communication  to  the  Earl  of  Shaftes¬ 
bury,  stated  that  he  found  fifty-eight  per  cent 
of  criminals  were  dishonest  before  they  were 
fifteen  years  old.  Fourteen  per  cent  became  so 
between  fifteen  and  sixteen,  and  that  all  of  them 
had  shown  their  anti-social  tendencies  before  they 
they  were  nineteen  or  twenty.’  It  is  apparent 
that  the  effectual  treatment  of  the  juvenile  de¬ 
linquent  would  depopulate  the  prisons  twenty 
years  from  now.” 

Religious  revival  sees  a  duty  and  patriotic 
privilege  in  service  for  just  such  lads.  Wise 
workers  redirect  the  gang  spirit.  What  was  once 
a  dynamic  for  evil  becomes  a  dynamic  for  good. 
Henry  Drummond  said : “  Call  a  boy,  a  boy,  which 
he  is,  and  ask  him  to  sit  still,  and  there  is  no  power 
in  the  world  can  make  him  do  it.  Call  him  a 
soldier  or  a  man,  which  he  is  not,  and  place  a 
ten  cent  cap  on  his  head  and  you  can  order  him 
about  at  will.  ”  He  has  been  given  new  interests, 
and  a  sense  of  responsibility  is  born  within  him. 
The  discipline  of  such  classes  or  clubs,  the  in¬ 
culcation  of  fairness  in  games,  even  the  practical 
influence  of  the  bath,  all  combine  in  the  uplifting 
process.  Going  back  to  their  homes  they  take 
new  and  cleansing  influences  and  impart  at  least 
some  knowledge  that  is  a  contribution  to  the 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  23 


happiness  of  the  family.  A  boy  is  not  won  to 
goodness  by  sending  him  to  jail — “When  you 
seek  to  win  a  boy,”  says  that  friend  of  delinquent 
boys,  Judge  Lindsay,  “go  after  his  heart.”  That 
method  has  succeeded  where  all  others  have  failed. 

The  Question  of  Environment 

In  our  effort  for  social  betterment  we  need  to 
remember  that  environment  is  a  factor  of  tremen¬ 
dous  importance  in  the  making  of  character. 
J acob  J.  Riis,  after  long  and  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  children  of  the  slums,  said,“  Environ¬ 
ment  counts  for  ninety  per  cent.”  Several 
years  later  he  added,  “make  it  ninety-nine  per 
cent.”  At  least  it  is  certain  that  thousands  of 
children  of  poor  heredity  rescued  from  the  slums 
and  transferred  to  a  favorable  environment,  have 
become  good  and  helpful  citizens.  What  handi¬ 
caps  poisonous  air,  immoral  surroundings,  tumble- 
down  and  badly  ventilated  dwellings  are  in  the 
development  of  nobility  of  character.  Dr. 
Paterson  Smyth  speaks  of  the  inevitable  degrada¬ 
tion  of  those  who  are  “packed  in  one  reeking 
chamber”  with  blasphemy  and  obscenity  ever 
to  be  heard  through  the  thin  partitions  on  either 
side.  Settlement  and  other  city  workers  again 
and  again  find  men  and  women  herded  together 
in  tenements  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  decency 
and  virtue  almost  impossible.  Dwelling  places 
abound  where  men  and  women  are  living  and 
sleeping  the  year  round  amidst  unspeakable  filth 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


and  vice.  Degeneration  is  absolutely  unavoid¬ 
able  in  such  environments. 

In  an  Eastern  city  the  medical  health  officer 
reported  that  as  many  as  ten  people  were  living 
in  one  room  with  no  attempt  at  ventilation. 
Another  report  from  a  city  of  fifty  thousand,  says 
fifteen  Polacks  were  found,  eating,  cooking  and 
sleeping  in  one  small  room  amongst  filth  and 
stench  that  the  investigators  found  unendurable. 
In  another  city  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  Aus¬ 
trians  were  found  living  in  a  ten-roomed  house. 
Even  a  limited  personal  experience  shows  one 
what  cruelty,  crime,  and  depths  of  infamy  may 
be  found  in  such  abodes, — evils  which  pen  scarcely 
can  exaggerate.  Under  these  conditions  where 
squalid  poverty  and  unblushing  lawlessness 
abound,  families  are  being  reared  which  create 
environments  that  defy  the  church  and  threaten 
the  foundations  of  the  State.  Such  conditions 
must  be  remedied  as  we  endeavor  to  reform  men 
and  women:  otherwise,  we  leave  them  where  it  is 
well-nigh  impossible  for  them  to  be  even  common¬ 
ly  decent,  and  where  “wrinkled  in  body  and 
mind,  the  light  is  flickering  out  in  their  souls.’ 

A  short  time  ago  we  looked  over  a  vast  grimy 
desert  of  houses,  with  dingy  rubbish-filled  yards 
and  lanes.  Every  roof  covers  two,  three  or  more 
families  of  working  people.  These  people  must 
work  until  they  break  down  or  die.  We  call 
them  hopeless — these  sin-mauled  men  and 
women — but  faithful,  loving  service  has  shown 
that  all  are  capable  of  responding  to  influences 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  25 


which  call  out  ambition  and  love,  and  some  of 
these  “hopeless”  ones  have  to-day  become  the 
glory  of  the  community. 

Those  of  us  who  are  engaged  in  the  work  of 
Social  Service  and  Evangelism,  believe  in  the 
power  of  the  gospel — not  a  gospel  of  theory,  but 
a  gospel  that  can  be  preached  in  a  practical  way 
to  these  hungry,  wretched  multitudes,  and  poor, 
neglected,  starving  children.  No  depravity  is 
beyond  the  reach  of  Christian  love.  The  trouble 
lies  largely  in  the  fact  that  in  the  past  we  did  not 
get  near  enough  to  these  people  either  in  a 
physicial  or  a  spiritual  sense.  It  is  not  a  satis¬ 
factory  method  to  plant  “missions”  in  their 
midst,  and  have  people  come  in  for  a  few  hours 
service  each  week.  We  are,  from  the  view  point 
of  these  downcast  people,  too  much  removed 
from  them  in  any  such  work.  Earnest  people, 
not  too  long  but  too  exclusively  have  prayed 
for  these  suffering  ones,  prayed  with  tear-stained 
faces — but  the  prayer  that  is  most  needed  is  the 
prayer  that  wears  out  the  soles  quicker  than  the 
knees.  What  is  needed  is  a  love  that  manifests 
itself  through  the  human  touch.  Christ  entered 
the  city  with  its  wretchedness.  He  touched  the 
open  sore  with  His  own  hands,  and  that  is  the 
lesson  we  have  been  slow  to  learn — the  need  of 
the  personal  Christlike  touch. 

There  are  probably  many  of  our  city  churches 
where  this  class  of  people  would  be  welcome,  but 
the  very  location,  and  in  some  cases,  the  extrava¬ 
gant  furnishings,  forbid  their  entrance.  It  is  not 


26  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


enough  to  say,  “Oh  well  that  should  not  be  so, 
they  ought  to  be  willing  to  go  to  these  churches.” 
The  fact  is  they  do  not  go,  and  if  as  a  New  Y  ork 
preacher  says,  Mulberry  Street  will  not  go  to 
Fifth  Avenue,  Fifth  Avenue  must  be  willing  to 
go  to  Mulberry  Street,  or  to  its  vicinity.  As 
workers  for  God,  we  are  to  be  aggressive,  and  must 
use  every  effort  to  bring  these  people  into  the 
healthy  atmosphere  of  a  working,  active,  Christian 
Church.  By  that  means  we  may  hope  to  bring 
about  their  permanent  reformation.  Splendid 
service  along  these  lines  is  being  rendered  by 
certain  of  our  city  churches.  Necessarily,  the 
process  of  reclamation  of  these  districts  will  be 
slow,  but  the  people  reached  will  carry  back  to 
their  homes  transforming  influences. 

Adequate  Remuneration 

Many  of  our  people,  whose  lives  have  been 
religiously  quickened  and  enriched,  are  holding 
and  are  going  to  hold  more  of  America’s  wealth 
than  is  actually  needed  for  their  own  sustenance 
and  comfort.  As  employers,  what  is  going  to  be 
their  attitude  towards  the  employee?  Is  a 
writer  correct  when  he  says,  “People  who  call 
themselves  Christians  have  used  labor  and  then 
thrown  men  and  women  aside  as  they  throw  old 
machines  on  a  scrap  heap?”  And  some  who  have 
done  the  “throwing”  are  much  burdened  by  their 
many  goods,  which  the  rejected  toiler  has  helped 
o  produce;  and  in  the  process  of  production  the 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  27 


toiler’s  remuneration  has  been  such  that  to  pro¬ 
vide  for  the  evil  day  was  an  impossibility. 

As  we  write  these  lines,  a  great  city  is  stirred 
by  a  spectacular  and  turbulent  upheaval.  The 
events  just  preceding  the  days  of  the  French 
Revolution  have  been  re-enacted.  The  oppres¬ 
sion  of  high  prices  for  the  necessities  of  life  has 
become  so  insufferable  to  the  poor,  that  they 
have  arisen  in  tumultuous  revolt.  A  newspaper 
report  is  as  follows: 

Crying,  ‘we  want  bread,  we  want 
bread,’  more  than  three  thousand 
women,  bareheaded,  scantily  clad — • 
their  warmest  garment  being  a  shawl 
thrown  about  their  shoulders — ■ 

— stormed  up  the  steps  of  the  City 
Hall  here  to-day,  demanding  relief 
from  the  Mayor  from  the  high 
cost  of  food.  Most  of  the  women 
carried  babies  in  their  arms,  their 
faces  showing  the  pinch  of  hunger. 

Within  a  few  minutes  a  crcwd  of 
thousands  had  gathered  in  the  City 
Hall  Park  watching  the  demonstra¬ 
tion.  ‘We  are  starving!  We  want 
bread!’  was  the  constant  cry  raised 
by  the  women,  as  they  surged  about 
the  entrance  to  the  City  Hall.  They 
swept  up  the  steps  en  masse.  The 
doors  were  banged  shut  in  their 
faces,  and  wild  cries  and  impreca¬ 
tions  follows. 


28  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


In  London,  until  war  improved  labor  condi¬ 
tions,  it  is  said  that  one  million,  eight  hundred 
thousand  people  had  just  one  week’s  wages  be¬ 
tween  them  and  starvation.  Such  inadequate 
remuneration  doubtless  has  hastened  the  process 
of  moral  and  physical  degeneration. .  pertain 
things  are  requisite  to  normal,  healthy  living  and 
the  neglect  of  them  means  social  loss  and  ultimate 
social  wreckage.  There  is  absolute  proof  easily 
discoverable  to  show  that  some  employers  have 
paid  a  wage  that  was  not  a  living  wage  and  that 
they  appeared  quite  indifferent  as  to  how  the 
balance  was  to  be  obtained,  even  to  the  extent 
of  the  loss  of  character  and  virtue  on  the  part  of 
the  toiler. 

A  few  months  before  these  words  were  penned, 
a  girl  of  good  character  approached  the  manager 
of  the  department  in  which  she  was  a  clerk. 
She  informed  him  that  it  was  impossible  to  get 
along  honestly  on  the  small  salary  she  was  re¬ 
ceiving,  and  asked  if  an  advance  would  be  possi¬ 
ble.  In  a  brutally  insinuating  way  he  asked  her 
a  question  which  suggested  other  ways  of  aug¬ 
menting  her  income.  A  few  days  later  the 
young  man  to  whom  the  girl  was  engaged  met  the 
manager  on  the  street  and  quoting  the  request 
and  answer  above  referred  to,  in  order  to  have 
its  accuracy  verified,  pounded  the  face  of  the 
one  who  insulted  a  modest  young  girl  so  that  for 
a  week  the  manager  was,  as  the  young  man  said, 
“laid  off  for  repairs.”  The  girl  was  admitted 
to  be  efficient  and  the  salary  was  admitted  to  be 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  29 


insufficient,  yet  the  firm  could  go  on  piling  up 
its  profits,  making  the  already  rich  proprietors 
richer,  while  clerks  could  be  left  to  live  inde¬ 
cently  in  order  to  dress  decendy. 

Where  employers’  hearts  are  untouched  by  the 
principles  of  the  Gospel,  reforms  that  threaten 
financial  interests,  are  made  exceedingly  difficult. 
Much  education  is  still  needed  to  bring  about  a 
sense  of  our  joint  social  responsibilities  which 
will  result  in  the  sympathetic  treatment  of  those 
who  in  many  cases  are  maintaining  us  in  our 
comfort  and  luxury. 

Financial  Investment 

Genuine  religious  revival  will  also  cause  people 
of  means  to  see  that  money  which  they  have 
placed  in  the  hands  of  agents  or  companies,  is  in¬ 
vested  in  ways  that  will  bring  no  discredit  to  the 
cause  of  Christ.  Ignorance  as  to  this  may  mean 
that  people  who  say,  “Lord,  Lord,”  are  backing 
financially  the  enemies  of  their  professed  Lord. 
An  indifference  to  anything  but  the  interest  on 
their  investment,  has  been  found  again  and  again 
in  the  lives  of  prominent  Christian  workers. 

One  of  the  vilest  dens  of  vice  in  a  western 
mining  town  was  owned  by  a  woman  teaching  a 
bible  class  two  thousand  miles  Eastward.  She 
was  delighted  with  the  fifteen  per  cent  on  her 
money  which  the  agent  forwarded  regularly, 
and  pot  having  enquired  as  to  how  her  capital 
was  invested,  she  did  not  know  that  the  revenue 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


was  the  rent  of  a  house  in  which  the  lives  of 
hundreds  of  young  men  and  women  were  becom¬ 
ing  a  menace  morally  and  physically  to  any 
community  in  which  they  might  reside. 

In  another  instance,  a  superintendent  of  a  city 
Sabbath  School  had  over  forty  thousand  dollars 
invested  in  a  bookstore  on  the  shelves  of  which 
were  books  so  obscene  and  immoral  that  no  man 
of  decency  could  narrate  their  contents  even  to 
an  audience  of  men  only,  and  they  have  since 
been  put  on  the  proscribed  lists  of  British  and 
American  countries. 

It  is  amazingly  sad  how  many  people  can  re¬ 
adjust  their  convictions  when  income  is  affected. 
By  a  selfish  process  of  reasoning,  black  becomes 
grey  and  grey  becomes  white,  until  the  most 
outrageous  crimes  against  society  are  committed 
with  an  undisturbed  and  untroubled  conscience. 

We  never  can  expect  to  render  our  gospel 
attractive  if  the  world  sees  that  we  are  the 
children  of  greed.  Does  the  personnel  of  the 
church  impress  the  world  as  playing  the  game, 
as  living  the  life?  Do  our  deeds  tally  with  our 
profession,  or  are  we  playing  a  dual  role  by  seek¬ 
ing  to  live  the  higher  life  on  Sunday  and  the 
lower  life  on  week  days? 

Henry  Drummond  used  to  say  that  what  the 
church  needed  was  not  so  much  more  members 
as  a  better  brand  of  members.  There  was  some 
point  to  the  remark  of  a  Welsh  minister  who  at 
the  time  of  the  great  revival  was  asked  if  it  had 
reached  his  church.  “Yes,”  was  the  reply. 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  3 1 


“Did  you  have  many  additions?”  “No,  but  I 
thank  the  Lord  we  had  some  subtractions.” 
“The  people  that  are  with  thee  are  too  many,” 
was  Jehovah’s  message  to  Gideon;  and  when 
there  had  been  eliminated  from  the  Israelitish 
army  over  thirty-one  thousand  timid  and  careless 
men,  Gideon’s  band  of  three  hundred  with  God, 
was  invincible. 

And  with  God  man  is  still  able  to  do  the  seem¬ 
ingly  impossible  things.  If  our  so-called  Chris¬ 
tianity  seems  to  some  lacking  in  vitality  and  power 
it  is  because  as  one  has  said  we  have  substituted 
“churchianity  ”  for  Christianity,  and  organiza¬ 
tions,  instead  of  Christ,  have  become  the  central 
figure. 

Wherever  it  has  been  given  a  fair  test,  Chris¬ 
tianity  has  shown  itself  able  to  redeem  all  types 
of  human  failure  and  to  restore  lost  order.  Dur¬ 
ing  a  great  controversy  the  late  General  William 
Booth  was  asked  by  a  reporter,  “General,  do  you 
think  Christianity  is  played  out?”  With  that 
characteristic  half-snarl  which  at  times  he  used 
so  effectively,  the  great  leader  in  social  better¬ 
ment  replied,  “Played  out?  young  man,  Chris¬ 
tianity  hasn’t  been  played  in  yet.”  Through 
his  work  for  the  masses  in  the  great  cities,  he 
became  acquainted  with  such  heart-rending 
conditions  as  are  pictured  in  his  In  Darkest 
England  and  the  Way  Out ,  and  he  knew  that  many 
who  professed  Christianity,  possessed  little  of  it. 

Investigation  to-day  reveals  many  of  the  same 
appalling  conditions.  Who  can  look  at  some  city 


3  2 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


blocks  without  feeling  the  cruelty  of  the  thing? 
Usually  they  have  been  built  by  men  of  wealth, 
often  nominal  Christians,  and  the  owners  have 
given  little  attention  to  their  erection  or  they 
could  never  have  imposed  such  murderous  dis¬ 
comforts  on  their  tenants.  No  thought  was 
given  to  the  effect  on  precious  lives  that  must  be 
lived  where  fresh  air  and  sunshine  were  walled 
out.  Such  conditions,  with  other  involved 
handicaps,  recall  Charles  Kingsley’s  terrible 
language,  that  some  children  are  “damned 
from  their  birth.”  Humanly  speaking,  they  are 
so  heavily  handicapped  in  the  race  of  life  that 
their  fate  is  settled  before  they  start. 

The  Claims  of  the  Rich 

Nor  is  social  betterment  service  for  the  poor 
only.  The  rich  have  very  special  claims  on  us. 
Ruskin  has  pointed  out  how  the  tendency  is  to 
lavish  all  our  resources  and  all  our  sympathies 
upon  the  degraded  and  from  the  human  viewpoint, 
the  worthless.  But  we  listen  to  one  of  West 
London’s  world-known  workers,  as  he  pleads  the 
needs  of  the  occupants  of  the  houses  beautiful. 
He  says  of  his  own  city,  which  is  probably  true  of 
many  others,  “The  wealthiest  classes  of  our 
society  are  at  the  present  moment  the  most  im¬ 
moral  and  the  most  miserable,”  and  he  speaks 
of  their  corrupt  and  degraded  forms  of  amuse¬ 
ment,  showing  how  their  wealth  and  luxury  have 
bred  callousness. 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


In  reaching  the  wealthy  classes  through  re¬ 
ligious  revival,  we  set  great  material  resources 
free  for  social  betterment.  Many  consecrated 
people  well  equipped  to  help  the  masses  are 
unable  to  give  such  assistance  because  they  are 
without  financial  resources.  The  man  of  wealth 
may  have  the  privilege  of  sending  willing  feet  up 
garret  stairs  and  into  gloomy  basements  where  a 
practical  ministry  may  tell  much  in  community 
betterment.  A  score  of  helpful  institutions 
could  be  listed,  any  one  of  which  would  allow  his 
idle  money  to  earn  for  him  human  dividends  that 
would  enrich  him  for  time  and  eternity. 

And  he  who  serves  his  brother  best, 

Gets  nearer  God  than  all  the  rest. 

Personal  Conversion 

Let  us  never  forget  that  “The  improvement 
of  the  soul  is  the  soul  of  all  improvement.  ”  The 
gospel  is  individual  first,  and  social  second. 
Many  outside  the  church  are  preaching  a  social 
gospel  that  they  think  may  be  realized  apart 
from  personal  conversion:  but  no  matter  how 
enthusiastically  it  may  be  gone  about,  the  con¬ 
struction  of  a  noble  society  is  impossible  apart 
from  noble  people.  As  Herbert  Spencer  writes, 
we  “cannot  bring  golden  conduct  out  of  leaden 
instincts.  ” 

Paul  says  the  gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation.  Now  that  word  salvation  is  not  such 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


a  word  as  men  use  when  they  say,  “sanitary 
dwellings  would  be  the  salvation  of  the  masses.” 
The  word  as  Paul  uses  it  is  bigger  than  any  of  the 
tinkering  little  schemes  that  many  men  devote 
their  time  to.  For  while  social  service  must 
bring  about  reforms  in  many  phases  of  life,  yet 
we  do  not  and  cannot  save  the  masses  merely  by 
teaching  them  habits  of  cleanliness.  By  all 
means  let  us  preach  a  social  Christianity  -that 
is  a  Christianity  that  can  be  applied  to  social 
conditions,  a  Christianity  that  deals  with  proper 
housing  and  clothing  and  proper  civic  conditions; 
but  we  must  never  fail  to  realize  that  the  disease 
is  deeper  than  can  be  reached  by  these  external 
remedies,  and  it  is  ordinarily  true  that  if  a  man’s 
heart  is  cleansed,  and  he  is  provided  with  new  and 
uplifting  friendships,  he  will  soon  begin  to  clean 
up  his  house.  That  has  been  the  experience  of 
every  Christian  worker  among  the  masses. 

If  the  gospel  is  preached  in  its  fulness  it  cannot 
fail  to  impress  people  with  its  all  embracing  re¬ 
forms.  It  is  intended  to  permeate  all  depart¬ 
ments  of  life,  cleansing  and  sweetening  every 
relationship  and  manifesting  its  power  in  the  home 
as  well  as  in  the  church.  Incidentally,  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  good  for  the  real  estate  man  and 
for  the  builder.  Many  a  man  has  been  content 
in  his  poverty  and  dirt  until  the  gospel  brought 
an  enrichment  of  life  which  meant  cleaner 
thoughts  and  higher  ambitions.  With  Christ  in 
possession  of  a  life,  the  suburban  villa  often  has 
been  substituted  for  the  slum  den.  Religious 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  35 


revival  means  the  transformation  of  the  man,  and 
the  transformation  of  the  man,  means  social 
betterment  because  the  transformed  life  soon 
sets  about  the  transformation  of  unlovely  sur¬ 
roundings. 

Personal  Conversion  is  for  Service 

How  often  do  those  within  the  church  make  the 
mistake  of  thinking  that  personal  conversion  is 
the  final  end.  The  divorce  of  personal  Christian¬ 
ity  and  social  Christianity  is  not  of  Christ.  We 
must  seek  the  reconstruction  of  society  in  every 
department  of  life  upon  a  Christian  basis,  where- 
ever  that  has  not  already  been  done.'  “As  My 
Father  hath  sent  Me  even  so  send  I  you,  ”  was  the 
commission  of  the  Master  to  His  disciples;  and 
that  commission  has  in  it  a  glorious  song  of  free¬ 
dom.  “What  a  wide  and  inclusive  emancipa¬ 
tion”  says  Jowett,  is  contained  in  that  passage, 
“He  hath  sent  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor, 
to  heal  the  broken  hearted,  to  preach  deliverance 
to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the 
blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised  and 
to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord.” 

Social  Service  to  be  of  permanent  uplift,  must 
have  definite  evangelistic  values,  and  Evangelism 
must  express  itself  in  Social  Service.  To  separate 
the  one  from  the  other  will  bring  irreparable  loss. 
Nor  must  evangelism  be  confined  to  individuals 
alone;  to  do  so  is  to  place  a  grievous  limitation 
on  its  purpose  and  function.  On  the  other  hand, 


36  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


what  we  regard  as  community  effort  must  not  be 
carried  on  without  regard  to  the  individual. 
The  individual  and  the  community  are  inter¬ 
dependent.  The  Church  doubtless  has  created 
a  justifiable  prejudice  on  the  part  of  some  because 
she  seemed  lacking  in  enthusiasm  toward  com¬ 
munity  welfare.  One  writer  tells  of  a  man  who 
stood  apart  from  church  work  for  years,  but  who 
on  seeing  a  program  that  meant  an  interest  in 
social  welfare,  said,  “I  have  cut  out  the  church 
for  years,  but  if  it  is  going  to  do  vital  community 
service,  count  me  in.  ”  The  same  writer  tells  of  a 
social  service  meeting  in  a  United  States  town. 
A  leading  socialist  critic  was  present.  Knowing 
his  attitude  to  the  church,  the  audience  was 
amazed  to  hear  him  declare,  “If  you  church  men 
really  mean  to  take  up  this  program,  I  will  go  with 
you  to  the  end  of  the  road.” 

Some  time  ago,  the  writer  was  conducting  a 
meeting  in  a  theatre,  and  illustrated  what  the 
church  was  doing  in  applied  Christianity  for  the 
needs  of  great  cities  and  the  classes  that  hereto¬ 
fore  had  been  largely  neglected.  The  manager  of 
the  theatre  came  and  said,  “If  this  is  the  kind  of 
work  you  are  doing,  I  want  a  hand  in  it.  A  lot 
of  your  church  performances  don’t  appeal  to  me, 
but  this  kind  of  thing  does.”  A  little  later  he 
handed  the  writer  an  envelope  containing  one 
hundred  dollars  with  a  note  stating  that  more 
would  be  forthcoming  whenever  any  special  need 
was  made  known. 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


n  *1 

vl 


If  we  deal  only  with  individuals  while  the  forces 
of  evil  organize  the  community  to  destroy  youth, 
it  is  almost  as  Dr.  Craft  says,— “Like  trying  to 
make  saints  in  hell,”  or  as  Gypsy  Smith  said  in 
Chicago,  it  is,  “being  content  to  sing  hymns 
within  the  glow  of  stained-glass  windows  with 
hellish  conditions  unchecked  outside.”  We  or¬ 
ganize  rescue  missions  to  reach  the  down-and-out 
men  and  while  we  are  reaching  the  few,  the  con¬ 
ditions  under  which  such  people  live  and  work, 
are  wrecking  the  many.  Yet  even  within  the 
church  it  is  often  unpopular  to  fight  organized 
vice.  In  a  new  western  town  when  a  preacher 
launched  forth  in  rebuke  of  a  colony  of  vice,  a 
prominent  church  member  stepped  up  to  him  at 
the  close  of  the  service  and  shaking  his  fist  in  his 

face,  said,  “D -  —  you,  if  you  don’t  leave  these 

people  alone,  we  will  make  it  so  hot  for  you  that 
you  will  have  to  get  out  of  this  place  within 
twenty-four  hours.  We  do  business  with  these 
people  and  our  bread  and  butter  is  in  it.  ”  Such 
men  as  that  are  quite  willing  for  the  church  to 
act  the  part  of  the  Good  Samaritan.  But  re¬ 
ligious  revival  for  them  must  not  go  to  the  root 
cause  of  social  misery  and  suffering  if  that  will 
in  any  way  disturb  their  financial  interests. 

For  all  time  there  will  probably  be  need  for  the 
Good  Samaritan  type  of  effort,  but.  surely  we 
cannot  fail  to  see  the  need  of  cleaning  up  the 
highway  that  is  infested  with  robbers.  If  we  so 
fail,  then  social  service  may  become  an  effort  to 
heal  the  sores  of  warring  humanity  without 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


8 


stopping  the  war.  We  are  going  to  save  men 
which  is  much  better  than  to  rescue  them.  H. 
F.  Ward  tells  of  a  leader  in  another  church  going 
to  a  minister  who  was  fighting  vice  in  his  neigh¬ 
borhood  and  saying,  “Stick  to  your  job  of  preach¬ 
ing  the  gospel,  ”  and  that  very  week  a  daughter 
of  one  of  their  own  families  was  ruined  in  one 
of  the  houses  the  minister  had  been  seeking  to 
suppress.  We  must  not  be  content  to  attack 
social  evils  merely  with  sermons  and  rescue  homes. 

The  following  item  recently  appeared  in  a 
pamphlet  issued  by  the  International  Reform 
Bureau: 

The  State  which  had  the  greatest 
and  most  numerous  revivals  during 
two  years,  made  the  worst  record  of 
any  in  the  subsequent  temperance 
vote  of  its  legislature.  If  that  bell 
does  not  ring  loud  enough  to  bring 
pastors  and  evangelists  together  for 
earnest  conference  on  how  to  change 
all  that,  the  more  recent  change  of 
eighty  thousand  votes  to  the  bad  in  a 
city  election  after  the  greatest 
modern  revival,  should  show  that 
something  is  needed  for  bettering 
moral  conditions  besides  the  evange¬ 
list’s  faithful  attacks  on  drink  and 
gambling  and  impurity  as  personal 
vices. 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  39 


There  must  be  a  massing  of  the  religious  forces 
so  that  united  attack  may  be  made  on  the  under¬ 
lying  causes  which  produce  such  destruction. 

A  waitress  who  served  the  writer  during  a 
conference  of  religious  workers  in  a  Western 
town,  told  of  her  own  experience  in  earning  her 
livelihood  and  a  part  of  her  statement  given  in 
her  exact  words  follows:  “I  worked  in — (a 
large  departmental  store)  for  nearly  two  years. 
I  know  a  lot  of  the  girls  there  are  bad,  but  they 
do  not  get  enough  pay  to  live  decently.  My 
wages  were  three  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  week 
for  a  long  time.  My  next  position  was  at — — 
(a  well-known  dry  goods  firm).  When  they 
gave  me  piece  work  I  could  make  fair  wages;  but 
as  soon  as  you  make  good  wages,  the  prices  are 
cut  down.  Then  I  went  as  waitress  in  the  — * — • 
Apartments.  I  was  put  in  a  dingy,  dirty  little 
room  in  the  basement  or  cellar  right  next  to  the 
coal-bin.  The  people  I  waited  on  were  decent 
or  I  would  not  have  stayed;  but  really  life  was  so 
unpleasant  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  my  belief 
in  a  hereafter,  I  would  have  taken  to  a  very 
different  life.  How  would  you  like  to  room  in  a 
cellar  with  blue  mould  on  the  walls  and  things 
in  your  room?  Than  I  came  west.  I  started 

working  at  the  — * — •  Hotel  over  on -  Street. 

I  was  dismissed  because  I  would  not  live  a  fast 
life.  But  really,  sir,  nobody  seems  to  care  very 
much  about  us — there  are  a  good  many  more 
ready  to  pull  you  down  than  to  help  you  up.” 


40  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


The  incident  is  typical  of  many  that  might  be 
given. 

Now  what  can  the  religiously-revived  do  to 
better  such  conditions?  The  individual  moving 
alone,  unassociated  with  his  fellow-worker,  can¬ 
not  accomplish  what  an  aggregate  of  individuals 
may.  For  when  human  beings  merge  together 
in  a  group,  there  is  something  infinitely  larger  and 
more  effective  than  the  same  number  of  people 
working  along  individual  lines. 

In  a  town  of  eight  thousand  inhabitants  an 
organization  of  women  was  formed  following  a 
religious  revival.  Quietly  and  without  any 
public  announcements,  these  women  determined 
that  not  a  girl  in  that  town  should  justly  say  she 
was  friendless.  By  careful  and  systematic  plan¬ 
ning,  each  district  had  its  sub-committee  so  that 
every  home  with  girl  occupants  was  accounted 
for.  Girls  coming  to  town  were  quickly  intro¬ 
duced  into  helpful  associations,  girls  leaving  town 
were  cared  for  in  the  same  way  through  corres¬ 
pondence.  Through  hospitality  and  serious 
effort,  to  provide  happily  for  the  leisure  of  all  who 
would  avail  themselves  of  the  privileges  offered, 
many  a  girl  was  saved  from  flippancy  or  despair. 
Within  three  months  five  girls  confessed  that  the 
help  given  had  saved  them  from  disgraceful 
living. 

One  who  had  been  in  a  much  better  position 
in  her  home  land  across  the  Atlantic,  told  of  her 
lonely  life  in  another  town.  She  had  a  dreary 
room  that  was  partly  used  for  storage  purposes. 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  41 


There  was  never  any  time  for  reading  or  recrea¬ 
tion.  Her  Sundays  were  only  occasionally  partly 
free,  and  even  these  brought  no  touch  of  light 
into  the  gloom.  “I  went  into  every  church  in 
town  by  turn,  and  I  can  honestly  say  that  during 
six  months  I  never  received  a  friendly  word.  One 
night  I  saw  three  young  men  in  the  vestibule  of 

the - church  and  I  asked  if  I  could  be  shown 

to  a  seat.  Without  saying  a  word,  one  of  them 
jerked  his  thumb  over  his  shoulder  in  the  direc¬ 
tion  of  the  aisle  and  that  was  the  nearest  approach 
to  friendliness  I  was  shown.  Many  a  Sunday 
night  I  have  gone  down  the  street  to  my  lonely 
room  with  my  eyes  filled  with  tears.  Lighted 
windows  everywhere,  but  not  one  home  into  which 
I  had  been  asked  or  felt  free  to  go.” 

To  the  President  of  the  organization  above 
mentioned  she  spoke  her  gratitude  for  the  kindly 
interest  that  had  brightened  her  pathway  and 
given  her  new  heart  in  her  new  place  of  abode; 
and,  in  turn,  she  joined  the  forces  for  doing  for 
other  strangers  what  had  so  gladdened  her  own 
life. 

The  girls  befriended  by  such  an  organization 
should  be  led  to  understand  that  the  interest 
taken  is  a  permanent  and  practical  thing.  Where 
injustice  is  suffered,  the  organization  should  seek 
tactfully  to  bring  its  remedying  influence  to  bear. 
For  instance,  one  girl  reported  that  in  the  cloak¬ 
making  department  in  which  she  worked,  the 
foreman  was  making  life  wretched  for  some 


42  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


of  the  girls.  If  there  was  resentment  over  his 
approaches,  it  meant  dismissal. 

The  general  manager  of  the  business  was  be¬ 
lieved  to  be  courteous  and  reasonable,  and  after 
full  and  careful  gathering  of  the  facts,  the  in¬ 
formation  was  given  to  two  prominent  Christian 
citizens  who  were  at  the  head  of  influential  bodies. 
These  gentlemen  called  upon  the  manager  and 
giving  full  particulars  but  withholding  names, 
assured  him  that  if  necessary,  affidavits  would  be 
furnished,  but  that  for  obvious  reasons  the  com¬ 
plainants  greatly  desired  that  their  names  should 
not  be  divulged.  After  kindly  conference,  it  was 
agreed  that  the  general  manager  should  send  a 
letter  to  departmental  managers  and  foremen 
throughout  the  establishment,  stating  that  while 
he  had  the  fullest  confidence  in  most  of  his  asso¬ 
ciates,  yet  certain  complaints  had  reached  him 
and  he  trusted  there  would  be  no  further  occasion 
for  such  a  letter  as  he  was  then  sending.  The 
delegation  was  asked  to  report  again  if  the  letter 
did  not  bring  about  the  desired  effect.  For¬ 
tunately,  the  conditions  were  changed  immediate¬ 
ly  and  a  letter  was  sent  the  general  manager 
assuring  him  of  the;  deep  gratitude  and  sincere 
appreciation  of  the  complainants  and  wishing 
him  the  success  such  interest  in  his  employees 
deserved. 

While  it  is  a  little  outside  the  purpose  of  this 
narration  yet  in  view  of  what  has  been  written 
it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  many  managers  and  fore- 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  43 


men  are  all  that  could  be  desired  in  their  con¬ 
sideration  of  workers. 

A  department  manager  recently  assured  us 
that  the  standard  wage  throughout  his  firm’s 
many  branches,  was  amply  sufficient  for  the  needs 
of  the  clerks  and  that  an  individual  must  be  ad¬ 
vanced  in  salary  if  capable.  As  a  manager  he 
was  obliged  to  make  his  department  pay  but  not 
at  the  expense  of  insufficiently  remunerated 
assistants.  “If  we  know  any  girl  to  be  careless 
as  to  character,  we  deal  as  kindly  with  her  as 
possible  and  reliable  fellow-workers  are  asked  to 
get  her  into  helpful  associations.  When  a  clerk 
is  sick,  all  necessary  care  is  furnished,  and  addi¬ 
tional  financial  assistance  is  given  for  at  least  a 
few  weeks.  ” 

In  another  store  where  a  customer  had  become 
annoyed  at  a  waitress  because  she  declined  his 
in\itations  to  visit  him  in  his  boarding-house 
and  had  therefore  manifested  his  displeasure  by 
unjust  complaints  regarding  the  service  rendered, 
the  manager  gallantly  defended  the  girl  and  re¬ 
quested  the  man  to  get  his  meals  elsewhere  as 
they  thought  too  much  of  their  employees  to  ask 
them  to  wait  on  men  of  his  type. 

Social  Service  Leagues 

In  another  town,  following  a  religious  revival, 
a  number  of  men  formed  themselves  into  an 
organization  known  as  “The  Community  Better¬ 
ment  League.”  For  years  there  had  been  toler- 


1 


44  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


ated  certain  social  evils,  all  of  which  were  known 
to  be  a  menace  to  the  safety  of  the  youth  of  that 
town,  yet  nothing  had  been  done  to  put  a  stop  to 
these  evils.  An  awakened  public  conscience 
caused  the  people  to  unite  in  an  effort  to  make  it 
easier  for  the  young  people  to  do  right,  and  harder 
to  do  wrong.  Without  undue  publicity,  the  local 
situation  was  considered  and  discussed.  One 
or  two  tactful  men  were  appointed  to  interview 
the  law-breakers.  Quietly  and  wisely  they  talked 
over  the  legal  and  moral  aspects  of  the  case  with 
these  law-breaking  fellow-citizens.  They  ap¬ 
pealed  to  them  on  the  grounds  of  good  citizenship 
and  patriotism  and  explained  that  they  felt  it 
better  to  be  above  board  in  telling  them  that  the 
organization  they  represented  meant  business  and 
that  the  town  must  be  cleared  as  far  as  possible 
of  those  things  that  were  injurious  to  its  good 
name.  Without  any  threatening,  they  informed 
them  that  they  had  absolute  proof  of  illegal  acts 
and  that  they  earnestly  desired  the  assurance 
that  such  acts  would  be  discontinued.  The  in¬ 
terview  was  effective. 

Ordinarily  such  a  course  will  bring  about  the 
desired  reform  but  where  there  is  open  defiance 
or  a  refusal  to  listen  to  reasonable  appeals,  then 
the  law  should  be  vigorously  enforced.  It  is  no 
argument  against  such  procedure  to  say  that 
people  cannot  be  made  good  by  legislation. 
There  can  be  no  effective  denial  of  the  fact  that 
a  good  law  well  enforced  makes  evil  dangerous  and 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  45 


unprofitable,  and  thus  the  community  is  made 
morally  safer. 

It  is  a  poor  type  of  evangelism  that  is  indifferent 
to  the  presence  of  civic  abominations.  To  be 
deeply  moved  by  a  religious  revival  is  only  of 
permanent  value  as  the  emotions  are  translated 
into  deeds.  In  still  another  town,  a  different 
type  of  effort  was  productive  of  great  helpfulness. 
Christian  people  planned  to  give  certain  rescued 
men  a  chance  to  get  a  home  property  of  their 
own.  Here  is  how  it  worked  out  in  one  life. 

The  man  in  question  had  lived  a  godless,  reck¬ 
less  life  for  fifteen  years.  An  indulged  passion  for 
alcohol  had  ruined  all  his  prospects  and  made  his 
dwelling  a  place  of  wretchedness  for  the  entire 
family.  How  fearful  had  been  the  nightly  home¬ 
coming  to  children  and  mother  for  many  a  year. 
When  a  religious  revival  was  brought  about,  an 
impression  was  made  on  this  whiskey-soaked 
man.  To  one  who  took  a  kindly  interest  in  him, 
he  tearfully  confessed  his  own  helplessness  and 
his  longing  to  have  things  different.  His  burden 
of  sin  was  laid  at  the  foot  of  the  Cross.  New 
friendships  were  provided,  a  position  was  procured 
and  in  a  few  weeks  there  was  a  marked  change 
internally  and  externally. 

After  conferring  with  the  regenerated  man,  a 
small  house  with  enough  garden  to  occupy  use¬ 
fully  many  leisure  hours,  was  procured.  An  agree¬ 
ment  was  drawn  up  giving  the  man  the  privilege 
of  paying  so  much  a  month  partly  as  interest  on 
the  money  advanced  and  partly  as  payment  on 


46  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


the  principal.  In  case  of  sickness  or  enforced 
idleness  there  would  be  no  danger  of  loss  of  pay¬ 
ments,  and  rent  day  would  no  longer  bring  threats 
of  ejection.  The  sense  of  ownership  brought  the 
keenest  interest  and  enthusiasm  into  the  man’s 
life.  Half-holidays  and  evenings  were  devoted 
to  the  improvement  of  the  property  and  with 
genuine  pride  he  would  point  out  what  had  been 
done  and  what  was  contemplated.  No  charity 
had  been  dispensed — the  man  had  only  been 
helped  to  help  himself.  The  self-respect  which 
he  had  long  since  lost  was  restored,  and  he  has 
now  taken  a  worthy  place  in  the  community’s 
life. 

The  family,  which  gave  every  promise  of  be¬ 
coming  a  burden  on  society,  is  now  a  valuable 
asset,  every  one  of  the  seven  members  bringing 
credit  to  the  home  and  town.  The  simple  answer 
of  the  mother  revealed  much  of  what  had  taken 
place  when  a  former  employer  called  to  see  if  she 
could  do  a  day’s  washing,  “Joe  doesn’t  like  me 
to  take  in  washing  now”  was  the  response  uttered 
in  a  tone  of  humble  pride.  Once,  through  long 
weary  days  she  had  been  left  to  struggle  on  as 
best  she  could  with  a  brutal  husband  that  added 
to  her  burdens  until  with  body  and  heart  alike 
well  nigh  broken,  she  had  been  dragged  down  to 
an  indifference  as  to  the  cleanliness  or  tidiness  of 
herself,  her  children  or  her  abode. 

Then  gladly  she  had  confessed  her  purpose  to 
live  the  new  life  her  husband  had  chosen,  and 
soon  with  soul  and  body  alike  rested,  she  joined 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  47 


in  the  transformation  of  the  home.  It  was  the 
new  sense  of  the  responsibility  of  man  for  man 
brought  about  by  a  religious  revival  that  wrought 
the  social  betterment  in  that  community.  “Bear 
ye  one  another’s  burdens  and  so  fulfill  the  law  of 
Christ,”  had  been  heard  and  heeded. 

The  Care  of  the  Body 

Zealous  men  sometimes  advise  the  church  to 
keep  clear  of  anything  that  is  not  “definitely 
spiritual”  and  so  they  would  leave  the  care  of  the 
human  body  to  other  organizations.  Yet  only 
those  who  have  heard  the  voice  of  the  One  who 
taught  His  followers  the  infinite  value  of  the 
body,  can  realize  its  possibilities  as  the  temple  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  If  it  is  no  concern  to  us  what  is 
the  physical  condition  of  those  about  us,  we  are 
certainly  not  following  the  example  of  Him  whom 
we  call  Master. 

Look  at  the  poor  emaciated  toilers  in  some 
city  attics!  See  the  bloodless  faces  and  the  sad 
despairing  eyes!  Life  is  for  some  of  them  an 
hourly  struggle  for  bread.  The  body  is  never 
really  fit  for  life’s  tasks.  No  wonder  many 
succumb  to  evil.  They  are  so  physically  enfeebled 
that  the  power  of  resistance  has  almost  gone. 
Is  it  any  wonder  that  looking  upon  the  well- 
dressed,  well-fed  church  goers,  some  of  whom 
have  been  enriched  beyond  their  needs,  the  half- 
starved,  poorly-clothed,  badly-housed  toiler  feels 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


bitterness  of  spirit  because  none  of  these  profess¬ 
ing  Christians  seem  to  care. 

“Don’t  talk  to  me  about  religion,  there  ain’t 
any.  ”  These  words  were  spoken  a  few  years  ago 
to  a  student  missionary  by  a  sewing  woman  in  a 
New  York  tenement  house.  It  was  the  first 
visit  of  its  kind  that  she  had  had  for  several  years. 
“I  never  rest,”  she  continued,  “my  lingers  are 
always  going;  I’ve  never  asked  for  a  cent  but 
what  I’ve  earned.  A  few  years  ago,  with  the 
help  of  the  children,  I  used  to  be  able  to  make 
a  dollar  a  day,  and  we  got  along  pretty  well; 
then  prices  were  cut  down  and  we  made  only 
ninety  cents;  then  eighty-live  and  eighty,  and 
now  all  we  can  make  working  at  least  fourteen 
hours  a  day  is  seventy-live  cents.  I  used  to  say, 
‘It’s  God’s  world.  He’s  running  things  and  it 
must  be  all  right  somehow;’  but  I  don’t  now; 
things  aren’t  right.  ” 

Then  those  eyes  that  were  sunk  far  into  the 
sockets,  flashed  upon  the  visitor  as  with  voice 
trembling  with  mingled  pathos  and  anger  she 
said, — “there  are  men  who  chuckle  when  they 
find  a  new  way  of  bleeding  a  cent  out  of  a  starving 
woman  and  her  children.  What  do  the  churches 
care  about  us,  except  to  wear  some  of  the  half- 
paid-for  things  we  make.  ” 

The  condemnation  was  not  altogether  deserved, 
but  it  is  one  instance  out  of  many  that  might  be 
given  showing  the  gulf  that  has  come  between 
some  people  and  the  church. 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  49 


It  is  beyond  all  dispute  that  the  strategic  point 
in  the  contest  against  wickedness,  is  in  the  modern 
great  city.  Here  the  revolutions  are  bred;  here 
the  faces  of  the  poor  are  often  ground;  here  may 
be  found  the  modern  Shylocks  with  their  cursed 
sweatshops;  here  rises  the  bitter  cry  of  the  un¬ 
employed,  and  the  wail  of  the  thousands  who 
receive  little  more  than  starvation  wages.  True, 
some  of  these  are  more  the  victims  of  their  own 
sinful  folly  than  of  the  injustice  of  others,  but  a 
vast  number  of  these  sin-mauled  and  poverty- 
marked  people  have  not  had  a  “square  deal.” 
And  because  every  thoughtful,  optimistic  man 
must  feel  that  the  hope  of  humanity  is  in  the 
salvation  of  these  people,  the  Church  must  face 
her  responsibility  in  this  matter. 

Is  it  an  exaggerated  statement  when  one  says, 
“  Slaughter  marks  the  course  of  modern  industry  ’  ’  ? 
How  many  deaths  in  factories,  shops,  and  mines 
have  been  caused  by  the  penuriousness  of  com¬ 
panies  and  other  economic  injustices.  Only 
under  the  compulsion  of  the  government  have 
some  corporations  given  even  ordinary  protection 
to  their  workmen. 

Or  think  of  the  record  of  adulterated  foods! 
Eminent  physicians  state  that  through  unfit 
food  by  far  more  babies  have  been  slain  than 
are  thrown  into  the  Ganges. 

A  shipwreck  with  the  sacrifice  of  one  thousand, 
six  hundred,  and  thirty-five  lives  was  spectacular 
and  terribly  tragic — a  world  was  thrilled  with 
sorrow  when  the  wires  flashed  around  the  globe 


50  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


the  story  of  the  disaster.  Yet  the  health  bulletins 
tell  us  that  in  the  United  States  one  thousand, 
seven  hundred,  and  eighty  lives  are  lost  every 
day  by  preventable  diseases,  and  many  thousands 
are  bearing  their  burden  of  unnecessary  pain  and 
so  are  rendered  unfit  for  life’s  battle.  Surely  the 
sacrifice  of  these  one  thousand,  seven  hundred, 
and  eighty  lives  daily  is  not  less  tragic  even  though 
not  as  spectacular. 

In  a  Canadian  city  during  a  recent  summer 
month,  eighteen  thousand,  nine  hundred,  and 
seventy-four  pounds  of  meat  and  fish  being 
offered  for  sale,  was  confiscated  as  absolutely 
unfit  for  food.  Milk  to  the  quantity  of  two 
thousand,  one  hundred,  and  fifty  quarts  was  also 
rejected.  Yet  the  inspectors  do  not  by  any 
means  discover  all  such  efforts  to  make  money  at 
the  expense  of  the  murder  of  the  innocent. 

The  human  body  is  the  masterpiece  of  God’s 
creative  power,  and  religious  revival  ought  to 
mean  a  revival  of  interest  in  God’s  sublimest 
work.  To  attempt  to  break  life  up  into  sections 
and  label  one  secular  and  the  other  sacred  and  to 
seek  to  perpetuate  such  a  division  is  to  prevent 
the  answer  to  the  prayer,  “Thy  will  be  done  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.” 

But  the  better  day  is  dawning.  Conservation 
is  one  of  this  century’s  big  words  that  has  been 
applied  too  exclusively  to  natural  resources  such 
as  timber  limits  and  mines.  But  of  how  little 
value  these  natural  assets  would  be  apart  from  a 
race  of  honest,  industrious  men  and  women. 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  5 1 


So  earnest  workers  are  seeking  to  emphasize  the 
value  of  persons .  The  conservation  of  orphans, 
of  children  who  are  well-nigh  cursed  with  parents 
who  are  incapable,  means  that  such  handicapped 
and  neglected  ones  may  have  an  opportunity  to 
develop  into  healthful,  useful  men  and  women. 
Homes  there  are  in  which  the  atmosphere  is  so 
vice-and-crime  producing  that  the  offspring  are 
robbed  of  moral  ideas  and  ideals. 

Care  of  the  Child 

In  the  United  States,  two  and  one  quarter 
million  children  under  fifteen  years  of  age  are 
employed  in  various  ways.  There  are  murderous 
dwellings  in  which  every  member  of  the  family 
down  to  three  years  of  age,  is  enlisted  in  work. 
Children  of  three  years  can  and  do  straighten 
out  tobacco  leaves  and  assist  in  the  making  of 
artificial  flowers.  At  four  years  of  age,  they  can 
put  covers  on  paper  boxes.  At  five  and  six  they 
are  able  to  sew  on  buttons.  At  eight  to  twelve 
many  girls  are  engaged  in  finishing  trousers. 
Sometimes  the  bargains  for  which  people  scramble 
are  the  product  of  these  little  oppressed  lives. 
Medical  examination  has  made  it  very  plain  that 
wherever  children  have  been  made  to  work  during 
these  tender  years,  they  were  found  to  be  physi¬ 
cally  inferior  to  those  who  were  not  robbed  of 
their  heritage. 

One  who  has  studied  child  life  in  the  cities  has 
written  the  following  pathetic  lines: 


52  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


See  you  not  how  the  wild  rose 
weeps  unkissed, 

And  how  the  violets  from  the  hill¬ 
side  fade 

While  child  lips  wither  in  the 
factory  smoke, 

How  the  brook  creeps  away  to  song¬ 
less  death 

For  the  lost  dance  of  child  eyes 
bound  to  wheels? 

Play  is  the  child’s  birthright.  Yet  only  re¬ 
cently  did  towns  and  cities  begin  to  think  of 
adequately  providing  for  the  play  life  of  the 
child.  The  social  wreckage  that  involves  so 
much  effort  to-day,  may  be  lessened  by  more 
thought  and  work  in  behalf  of  the  boys  and  girls, 
and  it  is  far  better  “to  erect  the  fence  above  the 
precipice  than  to  have  the  ambulance  below.” 
Better  to  save  than  to  rescue. 

The  city  of  Chicago  had,  up  to  1912,  spent 
thirteen  million  dollars  on  playgrounds  and  those 
who  are  able  to  speak  with  authority  say  no 
better  investment  was  ever  made.  In  1916  the 
same  city  spent  one  million  dollars  for  a  like 
purpose.  During  that  year,  three  hundred  and 
fifty-six  thousand,  five  hundred  and  forty-eight 
people  used  the  Seward  Park  group  of  play¬ 
grounds.  The  cost  of  the  maintenance  of  this 
group  was  twenty-two  thousand  dollars  which- 
meant  a  cost  of  six  cents  per  individual.  The 
Magistrates  in  the  districts  state  that  the  de- 


Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment  53 


crease  in  crime  resultant  from  the  Park  system  is 
thirty  per  cent. 

Religious  revival  accompanied  by  social  better¬ 
ment  in  our  towns  and  cities  ought  also  to  mean 
a  far-sighted  policy  of  open  spaces  and  parks; 
and,  in  the  meantime  everything  possible  should 
be  done  to  at  least  alleviate  the  conditions  and  to 
teach  these  children  of  unequal  opportunity  how 
by  and  by  to  earn  their  bread,  and  thus  avoid  the 
inefficiency  of  later  years,  which  is  the  cause  of 
so  much  unemployment  and  poverty  and  even 

of  crime.  # 

An  honest  community  must  discharge  its 
obligation  to  such  children  as  these  whose  whole 
view  of  life  has  become  through  their  parents’ 
sin,  or  through  social  injustice,  perverted. 

Ministering  to  the  Whole  of  Life 

In  some  towns  and  cities  efforts  are  now  being 
made  which  seem  destined  more  effectively  to 
relate  the  church’s  work  to  the  practical  problems 
and  needs  of  men.  One  report  from  a  city  in  the 
United  States  tells  how  earnest  workers  are  seek¬ 
ing  to  meet  the  “terribly  serious  situation”  and 
to  touch  the  crowds  that  the  church  had  in  former 
years  practically  failed  to  reach.  Men  and 
women  “are  getting  a  new  conception  of  the 
significance  of  the  Gospel.  ”  Clean  amusements 
and  educational  opportunities  are  abundantly 
furnished.  There  are  many  meetings;  but  meet¬ 
ings  are  only  a  part  of  the  work,  and  the  effort  to 


54  Religious  Revival  and  Social  Betterment 


touch  these  people  at  every  point  in  their  lives, 
seven  days  in  the  week  is  being  successful.  The 
ministry  of  mercy  is  to  become  as  penetrating  as 
sin  and  sorrow,  so  that  no  one  shall  truthfully 
say,  “no  man  careth  for  my  soul.” 

Such  work  as  this,  and  of  other  organizations 
and  institutions  is  not  a  substitute  for  salvation 
by  faith  in  Christ,  but  it  is  an  expression  of  this 
salvation  as  a  demonstration  to  the  world  that  we 
are  indeed  His  disciples. 


# 


» ‘ 


DATE  DUE 


pmm®. 


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